Food : its adulterations, and the methods for their detection / by Arthur Hill Hassall.

  • Hassall, Arthur Hill, 1817-1894.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Food : its adulterations, and the methods for their detection / by Arthur Hill Hassall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    13/968
    ITS ADULTERATIONS AND THE METHODS OF THEIE DETECTION. »Ct OHAPTEK I. ON FOOD, ITS FUNCTIONS AND QUANTITY. It will facilitate tlie compreliension of mucli tliat is to follow, and enable us to answer questions whicli will be often put to us as to the quality, genuineness, wholesonieness, and quantity of the various kinds of food consumed, if we first bestow a few observations upon the functions performed by the several classes and kinds of food, and the amounts necessary to the gxowth, sustenance, and maintenance of the body in a state of health. The bodies of men and animals are built up of several substances; some of these, from the fact of their containing nitrogen, are called Tiitrogenous; others, being destitute of that principle, are termed non- nitrogenous, or carhonaceaus, ??2meroZ constituents, and ivater. The principal nitrogenous substances of the animal body are fibrin, found in the blood and muscles; albumen and globulin, abounding in the blood; gelatine, in the bones, tendons, and ligaments; and casein, in miUi; while the chief non-nitrogenous constituent is fat; they are identical in their ultimate composition, and contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur, in the following proportions:— Carbon 63*5 Hydrogen 7-0 Nitrogen 15*8 Oxygen 22'1 Sulphur 1-6 100-0 Now, the vegetable has a composition resembling, in the main, that of the animal, it containing analogous nitrogenous substances, though usually in smaller amounts while the fat is represented chiefly by B 2 ^